saying 'I have heard that scholars and such men as could read ought to have the benefit of clergy,' and saying, 'I can read. Why doth not Sir Richard permit me to have the benefit thereof? Another of them wept, and the third asked him that wept what was the reason why he did weep. Because,' sayeth he, 'I perceive my death is at hand.' 'Never care for that,' saith the little one, 'for we shall shortly be in a better place than here, because we die guiltless of offences;' and those little ones were bereaved of their lives."

(Then follows a long list of those executed by Bingham.)

Such acts of tyranny and oppression naturally produced the bitterest feelings amongst the Irish chiefs, and a general distrust of all English engagements. Out of this arose new wars and disturbances, to quell which taxed the whole powers of the English queen, and left Ireland in a more deplorable condition than she had ever been since the first English invasion. Young Hugh O'Donnell, who had been a prisoner with the English, and who, after most wonderful adventures, had escaped, and arrived in his father's territory, together with O'Neill, showed dispositions to dispute the English rule; and the queen's representative in Ireland endeavoured to enter into peaceable arrangements with them. But the Irish chieftains, so often deceived, feared to trust the English, and refused the terms of peace which were offered. This rejection of her overtures having been communicated to Queen Elizabeth, a very large army was sent over, and placed under the command of Sir John Norris. This army, having been joined by the Earl of Clanricarde, and Earl of Thomond, assembled in Athlone, and subsequently proceeded to Roscommon, and thence to Boyle, and finding no enemy there, went westwards towards Ballinasloe.

O'Donnell, who had taken on himself, in a particular manner, the vindication of the Irish cause, then marched into Connaught, and battles were fought, without any decisive result, at Ballymoe and Castlerea, on the river Suck. On this occasion O'Donnell was joined by Con, son of Dualtagh O'Conor, of Brackloon, and also had the assistance of O'Rourke, O'Kelly,

'In Sir Conyers Clifford's report on the province of Connaught, in 1597, the following reference to this Con O'Conor appears :-" Con Mac Dualtagh O'Connor, cousin-german to O'Connor Don, pretending to be chief of his name, received protection from Sir John Norreys, and revolted on the coming O'Donnell. He was slain in an action by Feagh Burke."-State Papers, Carew, A.D. 1597.

Dualtagh O'Conor, before referred to in Bingham's correspondence, had two sons: Con, who was slain, as above mentioned, in 1597, by David Burke, of Glinsk; and Dermot, who married the Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald, Earl of Desmond. He took a prominent part for some years as a leader in Munster; but his memory has been rendered infamous by an attempt which he made for a promised reward of £1,000, to deliver up to the English his brother-in-law James Fitz Thomas, commonly called the "Sugane" Earl.

M'Dermot, and O'Hara, who commanded different detachments of the Irish troops. The English, on the other hand, deserted by their allies, and finding their provisions running short, again retired to Athlone, having accomplished nothing by their expedition into Connaught.

Shortly after this, in September, 1596, Sir Richard Bingham retired from the governorship, and Sir Conyers Clifford was appointed in his place. This change had a most pacific effect on the Irish. Many of the chieftains who had been driven into revolt by the tyranny and atrocities of Bingham, renewed their submission to Clifford. Amongst others, O'Conor Roe, O'Conor Sligo, and M'Dermot, as well as the clan M'Donough, and the O'Harts, laid down their arms.

When information of this reached O'Donnell, he was furious with his late allies, and wreaked his vengeance in a particular manner upon O'Conor Sligo and M'Dermot, whose territory he entered and laid waste. These depredations were continued, until most of the minor chieftains and M'Dermot himself were compelled to agree to his terms, and to give him hostages. He then proceeded into O'Conor Roe's country, and burned and destroyed everything he could not carry off. Although it is not mentioned in the Annals, it appears from a letter from Clifford, that he took O'Conor Don and one of the M'Dermots as hostages.

Clifford, writing to the Lord Deputy in April, 1597, says:—

"May it please your lordship and the rest. At this present writing there came unto me A special messenger out of the north, from Hugh O'Conor Don, who hath advertised me that there hath lately arrived in O'Donnell's country two ships, one from Spain, which hath brought some powder and munition; and in that ship, are not above the number of fifty Spaniards ; and the other ship of Spain is come from France, with wines brought thither by Crean of Sligo, and this messenger doth answer me to make proof of it, on peril of his life, that what report soever may arise of the coming of these Spaniards, that the number is not greater, neither any likelihood of other ships to come thither from Spain this year."

Writing again to Cecil, on November 19th, 1597, Clifford says:

"Yet, with God's assistance, I have broken all his (O'Donnell's) devices, only he is now in his last, which I trust will be costly to him. Amongst those he took for pledges, for there were two, the one called O'Conor Don, the other M Dermot."

Notwithstanding this boast of the governor of Connaught, that O'Donnell was reduced to the last extremity, the war which he raised continued to be carried on with the greatest bitterness, and lasted for several years, the unfortunate governor not living to see the end of it.

E E

About a month after the letter above alluded to was written, in December, 1597, O'Conor Don was released, but not until he had complied with all O'Donnell's demands, and given as hostages his own two sons, the heir of O'Beirne, the eldest son of O'Hanly, and the heir of O'Flynn.

Having thus crushed the Irish in Connaught who were opposed to his policy, O'Donnell proceeded to the north, and there joined O'Neill, who was threatened by a large force under the command of Sir Henry Bagenal. O'Neill had married Bagenal's sister, contrary to the wish of her brother; and a bitter personal animosity existed between the two commanders, which made the conflict in which they were about to be engaged even more deadly than it would otherwise have been. The rival armies met at a ford on the river Blackwater, not far from Armagh, and a sanguinary battle took place. In this battle, known as "Beal an atha Buidhe," or the Battle of the Yellow Ford, the English were completely defeated, and Bagenal was killed. According to English writers, the number of troops they lost was over 1,500, whilst the Irish lost only 200 killed and 600 wounded. Cox says: "By this victory the Irish got arms, ammunition, and victuals, and, which was more, so much reputation, that the English could act only on the defensive part, and not that itself without continual fear and danger;" and Fynes Morison says that "the English, from their first arrival in the kingdom, never had received so great an overthrow as this. O'Neill was regarded as Hannibal was after the battle of Canna."

After this great victory, O'Neill and O'Donnell separated. O'Neill went to Munster, where he again defeated the English, and set up James Fitzgerald, commonly called the Sugane Earl, as Earl of Desmond, and left him and Dermot O'Conor, before referred to, as the chief Irish leaders in the south, whilst O'Donnell seized the castle of Ballymote, which he took from the M'Donoughs, and having entrenched himself therein, prepared to resist any attacks that might be made on him.

These important successes of the Irish aroused and alarmed the representatives of the queen. Instead of being in the last extremity, as represented by Clifford, O'Donnell was now more powerful than ever; and recognising O'Neill as monarch of Ireland, he cast off all allegiance to the English throne. It became, therefore, necessary to crush him; and the Earl of Essex, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, was sent over to Ireland with a large army to restore the queen's authority in that country.

The greater part of Connaught had been already devastated by O'Donnell. O'Conor Sligo's territory had been laid waste; O'Conor Roe's delivered up to

fire and pillage; O'Conor Don himself had been taken prisoner, and M'Dermot's country had been plundered, and his lands devastated by the northern armies. No love, therefore, existed in the breasts of the Connaught chieftains for their warlike countryman. The arrival of Essex gave them hopes that they could safely shake off the submission which they had made to O'Donnell. O'Conor Sligo, who had suffered most from his hands, was the first to declare in favour of the queen. He shut himself up in his castle of Collooney, which O'Donnell at once prepared to besiege. Thereupon the governor of Connaught, Sir Conyers Clifford, assembled his troops in Roscommon, and called to his aid all the chieftains who had previously entered into the composition with Sir John Perrot. Having been joined by O'Conor Don and several others, the united army proceeded first to Tulsk and then to Boyle. Meanwhile O'Donnell, having strengthened his entrenchments round the castle of Collooney, and having left sufficient force to maintain the siege, proceeded to the pass of the Curlieu mountains, and there awaited the attack of his enemies.

The allied English and Irish forces advanced from Boyle on the morning of the 15th August, 1599; and about eleven o'clock the conflict began. A party of the English, under Sir Alexander Radcliff, made some advance up the hill towards a bog and wood in which the Irish were concealed. The latter rushing out, a desperate conflict ensued, which lasted for an hour and a half, when, it is said, Radcliff's men had expended their powder and shot, and the vanguard, pressed by the Irish, wavered, wheeled about, and fled. Radcliff received a wound in the face, and another in the leg, and was soon after slain. The vanguard being routed, Clifford himself endeavoured to animate his men, and laboured, but in vain, to rally them by his voice and example; and the brave veteran, rushing onward, was shot through the body, and killed; whilst another English commander, Sir Griffin Markham, received a shot through the arm, and narrowly escaped.

The battle was now practically over. The English, dispirited by the loss of their general, commenced a retreat, which was soon turned into a disastrous flight, as O'Rourke, who, in the beginning, had been detained at a distance guarding one of the passes, came up with a fresh body of Irish forces, and, animated with the recollection of old wrongs and revenge for the murder of his father, rushed impetuously down the hill with his kerns and gallowglasses, and drove the English as far as Boyle, where the remnant of their forces found refuge for the night. The next day they retreated hurriedly to Athlone, leaving immense booty, ammunition, arms, armour, and colours to the Irish. After the

!

battle, O'Donnell ordered O'Rourke to pursue O'Conor Don; but O'Rourke refused, saying, "O'Conor Don is my brother-in-law, and I have no enemies but those foreigners and Saxons who murdered my father." Upon this O'Donnell himself marched to Ballintober, where O'Conor Don had retired, and placing a large gun, which had been sent to him as a present from Spain, on the heights of Ballyfinegan, which commanded the castle, soon compelled O'Conor Don to surrender.

Taking O'Conor Don with him, O'Donnell proceeded to Collooney, where O'Conor Sligo still remained besieged. Having arrived there, "he sent Clifford's head into the castle with a message, that if Collooney was not immediately surrendered, O'Conor Don's head should be sent in likewise. The castle was therefore surrendered to the victorious O'Donnell, who generously bestowed to the two O'Conors their lives and properties, on condition of their joining in the general cause."1 The decisive check which the English received at the battle of the Curlieus told upon their fortunes in other parts of the country; and Essex thought it more prudent to try and come to terms with O'Neill. For this purpose a truce for two months was agreed upon between them. During this interval, O'Conor Don, who had been knighted' by the Earl of Essex, returned to his castle of Ballintober, where he remained quiet, endeavouring to preserve himself and his people from the evils which surrounded them.

'O'Conor's Memoirs, p. 120.

266 'Knighted." Many inferior persons had been knighted previously to this period; but Queen Elizabeth issued her Royal mandate, ordering that none should be knighted, for the future, except men of ancient blood and property, or who had performed some singular service for the Crown. The mandate is worded as follows ::

"ELIZABETH R.

"The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty having found of later times that many of her good and loving subjects, being gentlemen of ancient birth and long continuance in this country, have taken great grief to behold themselves cast behind in all assemblies and public meetings for her service, by means of the multitude of knights that have been lately made by virtue of her commissioner, her Highness did resolve thereupon to prevent that excess by giving straight instructions to the Earl of Essex, late Lieutenant and Governor-General of her kingdom of Ireland, to forbear to bestow that dignity upon any person that was not of ancient blood and good livelihood, or had done some especial service; and yet for all Her Majesty said, straight charge and commandment, it appeared to her great mislike, that within two months or less after his arrival in Ireland, he had altogether swerved from these instructions under Her Majesty's hand, and had, beyond all moderation, given that dignity where there was no such extraordinary cause to make such numbers; whereupon Her Majesty did, by an express letter, all written with her own hand, give unto the said earl absolute commandment that he should not confer knighthood upon any one man more, but leave that reward to herself, who would be as ready to recompense such merits where they were due as any other person would be, though she never meant to suffer it that by